Toyota unveils hydrogen fuel cell car, could one day power your home

Toyota has shed some light on a new fuel cell car that could one day be used to power your home at CES 2014.

The prototype fuel cell car, which looks like a rather futuristic Toyota Prius, was officially unveiled CES 2014 along with plans to create an adapter that could transfer its power to your home.

A fully fuelled vehicle could supply enough power to run your home for a week in an emergency and the company is already working on an adapter that will connect to your home’s energy grid.

The fuel cell car was originally debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show in November 2013, but Toyota is already planning to sell the car in the US next year.

“Fuel cell electric vehicles will be in our future sooner than many people believe, and in much greater numbers than anyone expected”, said Bob Carter, the Toyota US Sales arm’s Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations.

Although Toyota has yet to reveal the pricing for the fuel cell car, it aims to cut costs by utilising electric parts already used for its hybrid vehicles, among other common components.

Fuel cells use hydrogen to create the electricity to power the cars, and are widely believed to be the best route to zero-emission vehicles by car manufacturers.

Hydrogen fuel cell cars combine the best features of electric and petrol-powered cars. They are extremely quiet like electric cars, but can be refuelled with hydrogen just like you would with a petrol vehicle.

The Toyota fuel cell car will produce 100kW of power, equivalent to around 134 horsepower - the same as the Toyota Prius. It will be able to get from 0 to 60kmph in around 10 seconds, but hopefully Toyota will be able to drop that time.

It will also be able to travel 300 miles on one fuelling, which is around four times that achieved by current electric car models (apart from the Tesla Model S).

Hyundai and Honda are also planning to launch fuel cell cars in the next two years.